Doctor Who Recap Season 3, Episode 10, “Blink”

Is it possible that “Blink” is the greatest Doctor Who episode ever created? Maybe. But it’s even more probable that “Blink” is such a fine piece of sci-fi/horror that it deserves to stand on its own, outside the larger canon of the series. If I were going to introduce someone to Doctor Who for the first time, it would be tempting to show them “Blink”—and yet it would be unfair to do that because they might think the series is something other than what it is. If “Blink” is the greatest installment of Who, then what does that say about the show, given that the Doctor is in it for it all of six or seven minutes? Like the previous two-parter, much of “Blink’s” strength comes from its uniqueness (although that’s probably the only thing it has in common with “Human Nature”).

Steven Moffat’s scripts for Doctor Who have come to be the stories against which all others end up being measured (which is probably very unfair to the other writers). “The Empty Child” two-parter and “The Girl in the Fireplace” have been the high points of the first two seasons, so it’s no surprise that “Blink” is another masterpiece. What continues to stymie me about Moffat’s work is his ability to see Doctor Who in a way that is entirely his own. He doesn’t seem like a man who sits down to write a Doctor Who story as much as someone who sits down to write a story that would be good regardless of whether or not it’s Doctor Who. “Blink” is the clearest example of this yet. Remove the Doctor from the proceedings, insert a time traveler with any other name, and this could just as easily have been an installment of some other show. Maybe “Blink” is actually the greatest episode of an unknown sci-fi/horror anthology series and it just happens to be on loan to Doctor Who.

Jeez. If I engage in any more hyperbole I might as well get married to it. The episode begins with a young lady by the name of Sally Sparrow (Carey Mulligan). She’s got this Nancy Drew thing going on, but I suppose any young woman investigating a spooky old house would. She discovers a message hidden behind some crumbling wallpaper. It’s from someone called “The Doctor” and it insists that she duck. Luckily she does, as if she hadn’t she’d have been knocked out cold by a rock flung by seemingly nobody. The only other thing in the room is a creepy, angelic statue. Before long, Sally Sparrow finds herself embroiled in what must be the strangest series of events in her life, and all of them seem to lead back to an even stranger man who appears only as an easter egg on a series of otherwise unrelated DVDs.

The episode is as simple as it is complex. It’s, as the Doctor put it, “a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey…stuff”. It also achieves the unthinkable in the form of the Weeping Angels—a race of alien beings who must surely rank amongst the scariest the show has ever presented, and yet we never once see them move. Oh how I hate to toss around words like “genius”, but how else do you describe what Moffat achieves here with inanimate objects? Even after the episode concludes, Moffat plays with the viewer by repeating the Doctor’s advice for dealing with the angels against a montage of other statues. He’s scarred children for life with this piece. Peet Gelderblom, who also worships at the altar of Moffat, wrote to me in an e-mail after seeing “Blink”: “He’s taken the least convincing scare element of Stephen King’s The Shining—the hedge animals that move while you’re not blinking—and made it work, simply by supplying the right context and backstory. I looooved it.”

Aside from being great sci-fi and great horror, there’s also the tenderness of the story and the characters are quite intricate given how much is going on in these 45 minutes. Particularly moving is the story of Billy Shipton (Michael Obiora), a DI who’s instantly transported from the present to 1969. The only way he will return to 2007 is by living his life day to day until he gets there. Sally Sparrow meets him twice on the same day: Once when he’s a virile, flirtatious young hunk, and a little bit later as an aged, dying man in a hospital. When he sees her for the second time he reminisces, “It was raining when we met.” She replies, “It’s the same rain.”

Much like last year’s Doctor-lite episode “Love & Monsters”, the internet plays a big role in “Blink”. The Doctor’s easter egg appearances have led to an entire internet subculture of surfers trying to decipher the deeper meanings of his message. Sally’s sleuthing partner, Larry (Finlay Robertson), who is one of them, repeats a phrase of the Doctor’s from the DVD: ”’The angels have the phonebox’. That’s my favorite, I’ve got that on a T-shirt.”

I want one of those T-Shirts.

Next Week: Derek Jacobi guest stars and Captain Jack Harkness crosses back over from Torchwood to reunite with the Doctor in “Utopia”.

Classic Who DVD Recommendation of the Week: Check out some vintage Who by seeing Jon Pertwee battle “The Claws of Axos”.

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[...] paradox of a circle of cause and effect, with no beginning or end (an idea Moffat also employed in "Blink"), the cliffhanger resolution—Rory releases the Doctor from the Pandorica with the sonic [...]Posted by Doctor Who: Season 5, Episode 13: "The Big Ba on 2010-07-25 03:54:17

[...] scares and surprises. Indeed, this one builds directly on two of those previous high points: 2007';s "Blink" and 2008';s two-parter consisting of "Silence in the Library" and "Forest of the Dead." With a [...]Posted by Doctor Who: Season 5, Episode 4: "The Time of on 2010-07-07 18:22:04

'Blink' is a great sci-fi show. Even my non Doctor Who watching friends thought so; I made them watch it. You don't need to be a Doctor Who fan to enjoy this stand alone episode.Posted by Dustin on 2007-11-09 04:31:00

"If I were going to introduce someone to Doctor Who for the first time, it would be tempting to show them 'Blink'--and yet it would be unfair to do that because they might think the series is something other than what it is."

"Blink" actually was my first episode of "Doctor Who." Ever. Saw it a few days ago, lured in while flipping channels by the creepy angel statues and the wallpaper scene.

I had a small idea of what the show was about (alien dude in a space-time-travelling phone booth thingy), so I had a sense that "Blink" was unusual.

And really, really good.

Aside from being suspenseful and wicked cool, it tied up a multitude of loose ends and questions right at the end in such a perfect neat bow I freaked out a little bit. Very well done.Posted by Harvey Jerkwater on 2007-09-19 15:16:00

Some episodes of the X-Files are very fine; need to see Quatermass 2 and Quatermass and the Pit on TV. Then there's the Japanese--Cowboy Bebop, Neon Genesis Evangelion, just off the top of my head...Posted by Noel Vera on 2007-09-18 22:26:00

Let me go for best of the season. Best of the new Dr. Who, I vote Moffat's Empty Child/Doctor Dances. Best SF--well, there's The Prisoner, a handful of Twilight Zones, still need to go through the old Dr. Who, and I hear good things about Battlestar Galactica and Lost...Posted by Noel Vera on 2007-09-18 22:17:00

Artsy? ARTSY!? Damn. I didn't see that coming, but maybe I should have.

Dan -

While DW certainly doesn't even have close to the same kind of presence over here, it's a helluva lot better than it was back when I was growing up and watching it on PBS. At least these days I don't have to feel embarrassed about being a fan and yet at the same time I appreciate the fact it's still somewhat niche here in the States. I would almost think the UKers could get sick of hearing about it based the amount of press coverage you guys have to sift through.Posted by Ross Ruediger on 2007-09-17 22:15:00

I couldn't imagine the Jeckyll episodes being 5 to 10 minutes shorter--the series feels pretty rushed as it is! In fact, that's the only very minor quibble I have with it (although it's also part of its charm).

You did the right thing to wait for the DVD release, Ross!Posted by Peet Gelderblom on 2007-09-17 20:24:00

There are plenty of us here in the US who do get that "vibe". Thank goodness for cable to bring BBC to us.

I am still having nightmares about the weeping angels. So terrifying. And the episode was good enough that I didn't even mind how infrequently we saw the Doctor.Posted by Anonymous on 2007-09-17 19:44:00

It's a shame DW doesn't have the same cultural choke-hold in America, though.

Here in the UK, it's not "a foreign sci-fi show on a minority channel". It'a designed as a show for the whole family--that the majority of viewers are likely to either intend to watch, or have on as background. It's aired on Saturday primetime as BBC 1's lynchpin for the evening. There's a making-of show straight after, build up throughout the week on kid's shows, etc. It's a big deal.

A shame the US fans don't get that "vibe". But it's great you watch--just try and convert others! :)Posted by Dan Owen on 2007-09-17 14:07:00

In my pantheon of "greatest" it might make #50 out of well, 50.

Then again, as you well know, I don't take to "arty" scifi.

In the face of all the fawning, discretion is the better part of valor.

The iciness of those two words does not bode well for your opinion of the episode itself.Posted by Ross Ruediger on 2007-09-16 22:41:00

Nice review.Posted by Sheik Yerbootie on 2007-09-16 21:23:00

Moffat wrote Jekyll? You're right, I have to get those eps...Posted by Noel Vera on 2007-09-16 21:08:00

Amazon is listing JEKYLL as having a R1 release date of Sept. 18th. ~Wicked~.Posted by Ross Ruediger on 2007-09-16 20:33:00

a -

I've got a copy of the BBC broadcast version of Ep. 1 which runs just a few seconds shy of 53 min. I don't know the specific RTs of the other eps, but my guess is that they must all be ~somewhat~ edited.Posted by Ross Ruediger on 2007-09-16 20:20:00

"JEKYLL finished up its US run just a few weeks ago, but I didn't watch it simply because BBCAmerica cut maybe about 5-10 min from each ep (to accomodate commercials)."

I hadn't heard confirmation of that, Ross. Now I must get the DVD. I enjoyed the edited version so much.Posted by a on 2007-09-16 18:59:00

Peet -

JEKYLL finished up its US run just a few weeks ago, but I didn't watch it simply because BBCAmerica cut maybe about 5-10 min from each ep (to accomodate commercials). I'm waiting for the DVD release so I can experience it in full. I believe it's set for an October release.

It's nice to see so many new names posting here--so many people who felt the same as I did.Posted by Ross Ruediger on 2007-09-16 17:59:00

Peet,

Jekyll has already aired on BBC America. Does that count?Posted by a on 2007-09-16 17:54:00

Don't worry, Ross: Blink deserves all the hyperbole you can come up with. You already know how much I loved it (and you did!).

Moffat's Doctor Who episodes have always been stand-outs for me, and his absolutely superb new series Jeckyll has convinced me that he's the most exciting talent working in television drama today. (The rumour that he'll supervise a fifth season of new Doctor Who is a mouthwatering prospect to me.)

Ross, I do hope you're planning to write about Jeckyll at a later stage. I'm not sure if or when it will air in the US, but the DVD will be out soon.Posted by Peet Gelderblom on 2007-09-16 12:57:00

As a long-time fan of the series (almost 30 years), I agree that "Blink" is up there with the best things Doctor Who has ever done. I'd love to see it win Moffat his third Hugo in a row next year.

Surely the most original and ingenious feature of the episode is the way the viewer is brought into the story and made part of it. It's never spelled out, but you'll notice that it's not just the characters who freeze the angels by looking at them, but us too! For example, when Sally finds the TARDIS key, pay attention to the two angels she has her back to. They only change position when Sally momentarily hides them from our view. Then, when the angel attacks Sally and Larry after the DVD message ends, it can only get to just out of camera range--otherwise the audience would see it moving...Posted by Steven Cooper on 2007-09-16 08:44:00

I'm visiting a friend in rural Kentucky this week and he is a "Doctor Who" fan from way back. I ended up seeing the episode "Blink" because he insisted that I not miss it. He was right, indeed. It was the first episode of the current run of "Doctor Who" I had ever seen. What a way to get into the series! This show is a very long way from the Tom Baker /Peter Davidson years--the last time I saw this character. For the last day or so we've been put on our best British accent and screaming "don't blink. don't look away" at each other.Posted by Ken Cancelosi on 2007-09-16 05:26:00

Greatest bit of SF TV ever? Have to think about that.

But it's terrific. I can't even complain about the direction. Wonderful use of statues, and stillness.

Moffat's scripts all deal with time travel, I think.Posted by Noel Vera on 2007-09-16 04:46:00

This one was so good it depressed me.

An apt compliment given Sparrow's feelings about sadness.

I am not a fan of the show, but once again Moffat's work rises above the rest.Posted by tyler on 2007-09-16 02:14:00

If that t-shirt had a picture of the TARDIS on it, I'd order one.Posted by Joan on 2007-09-16 02:04:00

Anon/Paul -

Hadn't thought of that! Nice observation.

Norm -

Thanks a billion for that link. I'll defintely be investing in at least one of those. This item may be a bit much however.

Middle Browser -

I always like to hear about the show appealing to people who don't generally consider themselves sci-fi fans because I don't see DW as being the sort of fare that should ONLY work for genre folk.Posted by Ross Ruediger on 2007-09-16 01:28:00

Camera obscura: My 10-year-old did hide behind the couch. It was awesome.Posted by Joan on 2007-09-15 19:38:00

Funny you should say it's the best ever. I am not a big Sci Fi person - "X Files" and "Night Stalker" (along with some Star Trek) are my only real serious ventures into the genre. But I have been watching Dr. Who for the last year or so and enjoying it. (To think I'd dismissed this back in the 70s when it was on PBS because the special effects seemed so silly.) But all that said, I loved yesterday's episode so much that I called a friend who does not watch Dr. Who, and I told her to record this as it would be a nice intro into the show but that if she never watched another episode, she'd still enjoy this.

It was just great, and it's nice to know that someone with a lot more background in the subject thinks the same.Posted by Middle Browser on 2007-09-15 19:10:00

I had seen it when it came out in the U.K., but it was so much more fun to watch it with my 13-year-old daughter next to me. She hid her face behind her fingers and watched through them, she grabbed my hand and squeezed until I thought she'd break a bone, she considered hiding behind the couch.

So I'm not the only one in the house that thinks it was brilliant. I'm so happy for her that she gets to see the Doctor as a kid, b/c I didn't get to know him until I was in college.Posted by Camera Obscura on 2007-09-15 18:22:00

"Blink" is set in our present, but the epilogue is set "one year later."

So I am looking forward to the next season of Dr. Who, when we get to also see the adventure involving the bows and arrows and "It's hatching!"

LGDPosted by Anonymous on 2007-09-15 18:10:00

About two seconds after I sent an email to Ross saying I hadn't had a chance to see this yet, my offspring came trooping in from their tennis lessons and asked, "So, we can we watch Doctor Who now?"

I've no problem at all with tossing words like "genius" and "brilliant" at an episode like this. (It's not hyperbole when it's earned!) Sally Sparrow was a fantastic character to build the story around, and all the other details were just lovely. I'm definitely watching this one again when the kids aren't around, just so I can absorb it all more thoroughly.Posted by Joan on 2007-09-15 17:11:00

Ross,

Great review of a great episode. This one was so good it depressed me. Not only the best episode of the new Doctor Who so far, but one of the best eps of any sci-fi show ever. You're so right.Posted by a on 2007-09-15 16:14:00

In a serendipitous corollary, those T-shirts have been waiting for you ever since the episode aired in the UK:

http://www.cafepress.com/phonebox

Heavy.Posted by Norm Wilner on 2007-09-15 16:13:00

"...although that's probably the only thing it has in common with "Human Natureâ€ "

While I loved "Blink," I thought its basic plot [or at least, the inciting incident] was so much like "Human Nature" that I was surprised a showrunner ran two such similar stories:The Dr. flees four aliens who want all his energy to live forever, he gets stuck in a primitive period for a long while... then the aliens are beaten quite easily.But it's all in the execution--and "Blink's" was great.--PaulPosted by Anonymous on 2007-09-15 16:10:00

The best episode of any "pure" sci-fi show in years! Wonderful entertainment that makes me desperate to see Moffat's two-parter next year. Superb.Posted by Dan Owen on 2007-09-15 15:14:00